vases– acanthus leaf impressions – 12 x 24 inches...

1 !e Concrete Gourmet's Cookbook © James Maxwell 2010 - Introduction – [email protected]

Vases– Acanthus leaf impressions – 12 x 24 inches – ferrous sulfi de and green stains

The Concrete Gourmet’s Cookbook

By James Maxwell © 2009

Photography by Allan Droyan

http://www.artistjamesmaxwell.com/

mailto:[email protected]


•PROMOTION•

The Concrete Gourmet's CookbookART MADE CONCRETE

CREATIVITY

One necessary component of creativity is resistance. It is the impetus, the signal to

make or not make art. Great resistance can shut a good idea down, too much resistance

causes stress and eventual disintegration of your energy, and tolerable resistance creates

strength to overcome obstacles. Creativity becomes an option because there are obstacles.

Font – Pelargonium leaf impressions – 17 x 17 x 6 inches – carbon stained, soy sealer

The creative artist, as in a meditation, enters the unconscious state to lift what is

there to awareness, an inspiration, a solution to a problem, the need to fi ll a vacuum. The

practice is not without risk. Brought to mind, that surfaced idea causes an awakening shock

you will meet with your own resistance. When the signifi cance of that idea takes hold your




enthusiasm drives you forward to create. Ah, hah! moments are usually accompanied with

laughter. If you feel a chill consider this a sign as the right direction to take.

Creativity requires determined force to use your stress or tension to lure an idea into

the real world. I know how stress impacts me when I'm fi nished. Was the pain worth it? I

prefer tension for I feel a good kind of tired the next morning. I may ache a bit, but when

I've seen what I've done I'm invigorated.

Look to your enthusiasm, respect the shock your work will have on others, and don't

create anything less than something reflecting truth or beauty, or something unimaginably

better.

Nest – Redwood roots, balloon, eggshells as molds– 7 x 9 inches – ferrous sulfi de stain, 22k gold leaf




•BACK COVER•


!e responsibility of making good choices has never been so critical, nor has making time for creative

play been quite so important. I’ve been a practicing artist/teacher for over sixty years. I‘ve drawn, painted,

sculpted and later taught, lectured and performed my art; my sole purpose has been to express my joy of life,

participate with those who make up my culture, and learn how I $ t into the scheme of things. I call art my career.

It is a good life for I $ nd meaning in my work.

I choose cement as my media even though it provokes negative press in the context of global warming.

However, I’m not deterred – I’m con$dent even. In art’s spooky, sometimes taboo current political stance,

beauty hangs in there as the greatest art-argument for cement/concrete use.

Cement in mixture, can be conversant with all the solid language forms of our planet. In concrete we

make contemporary fossils, rocks, % ood-plains, sophisticated canyons within the middle of cities, and sturdy

playgrounds for children’s swings.

On the practical side, cement is much cheaper than ceramic. Cement is $ red only once; ceramics are

$red two times or more. ! e price of clay and glazing materials, plus the price for high-$ ring temperatures

together cost more to buy and use than concrete. One person’s output of cement objects vs. another’s output of

ceramic products shows that the carbon footprint for ceramic is greater. “Green” soy-based sealers are an

environmentally friendly and waterproof. With lacquer, like Japanese lacquer ware, concrete surfaces becomes

food-safe. Chemists are looking into new and less harmful ways to produce more effi cient cements that can

sequester carbon and ash. In the future, cement will have to become new and improved – benevolent in

relationship to our environmental concerns.

Have you noticed the price of paints and other art supplies? Watercolor, oil, acrylic or pastels – the

pigments in our paint boxes have been produced with considerable amounts of carbon impact on the

environment. Let’s not forget that some of those pigments are made using heavy metals and are quite

poisonous. Industrial cleaning solvents are deadly, as are aniline dyes, which have hazardous warnings on

pigments for commercial paints and fabric dyes that are made from coal and petroleum by-products. “First, do

no harm” are tough watchwords.

When I found out that world-wide cement production causes $ ve to seven percent of all greenhouse




emissions, I weighed the cause and eff ect of my actions and returned to my job of bringing light to darkness,

ge'ing my hands dirty, and makin’ mud pies that may make a diff erence.

James Maxwell

Mushroom – embedded lichen, sawdust, wood chips 9 x 12 inches – leftover concrete added over a period of time




Table of Contents

Chapter 1Recipes for Liquid Mixture – with photographs of work.A good space to work | The tools you need | Storage containers | Hints to relate preparing food to

mixing concrete | Using small batches | Measuring by volume | Water with bonding agents affect the quality of concrete, slow the curing time | Photos of working with described materials | Recipe #1 – The Liquid Mixture with Bonding Agent | Choosing aggregates in relation to the size and the purpose your fi nished project will perform | The value of plastic food wrap.

Chapter 2Recipe for Fossil-like Stepping Stones – with photographs of work.A note about the language of earth | Planning a path | What you need to proceed with this project |

Preparing the dry mixtures and storing them before beginning the process. | The wise move to embed steel wire and why | Recipe #2 – Stepping Stone Mixture | Setting up the work space to accommodate and prepare the mold to receive the wet concrete | The choice of leaves to make fossil records | Step by step procedure to do and finish the work | Listing of finishing sealers and their uses.

Chapter 3Recipe for an Organic Interlocking Path – with photographs of work.What you need to proceed creating this type of path | Using a premixed concrete and mixing it

properly | Recipe #3 – Using a premixed concrete/aggregate mixture for The Interlocking Path | Your team of helpers | Filling plastic garbage bags and plastic shopping bags with wet concrete as retaining molds for this interlocking path | How to place the bags to interlock | Allowing spaces for ground cover to exist and not effect the stability of your path | Placing rocks and design elements.

Chapter 4Recipes for Tiles, Fine Print Making, & Veneers – with photographs of work.What you need to proceed. | Recipe #4 – Recipe for tiles, prints, fine detail on veneers | The type of

sand needed for this recipe, mixing the consistency of toothpaste | Preparation to make tiles | Steel mesh, embedding | Fine Print Making on concrete in reverse | How to prepare your concrete surface to receive a bonding veneer, and how to apply it.

Chapter 5Recipes for Sculpture Mixtures – with photographs of work.What you need in preparation for concrete sculptures. | Tools | Scheduling working time by the

window of receptivity concrete has in curing | Recipe #5 – Sculpture mixes | Using peat moss, pearlite, mud, and vermiculite | Application over rebar, aviary wire armatures, and carving a day old block of concrete | Coloring & indoor and outdoor sealers | Making bases for your sculptures,

Chapter 6Recipe for Stucco structures, Making Your Garden’s Worm Bunker – with




photographs of work. What you need | Planning the structure to fi t the garden space with a worm's need in mind | Using

sheets of building insulation as the inner structure | Using garden fencing to embed superstructure, aviary wire as additional support | Thinking ahead to create feet and lid before concrete is mixed | Recipe #6 – Stucco ready to plaster.

Chapter 7Recipes for Preparing Surfaces to Attach Veneers – with photographs of work. What you need | Tools | Recipe #7 – Bonding Agent as glue and the volume with liquid for making a

veneer mixture.

Chapter 8Recipes for Birdbaths, Wet and Dry Fonts, and Garden Sinks – with photographs of

work. What you need | Recipe #8 – Concrete mixture that can retain and store water | Looking for the right

size form to fill a function | Making forms from scratch.

Chapter 9Recipes for when a Vase is a Vase – with photographs of work.What you need | Recipe #9 – Mixture for thin strong concrete receptive to veneers | How to make use

of carpet tubes | Plastic rain gutters | Concrete building forms | How to seal the inside of a porous vase to hold water.

Chapter 10Recipes for Mixtures that Support and Attract Life – with photographs of work. What you need | Where is the best placement in the garden for opportunistic life to alight | Using

living lichen, mosses and ferns | Recipe #10 – Mixtures that makes use of cement’s natural porosity.

Chapter 11Recipes for Food-safe Serving Bowls, Platters and Plates – with photographs of work. What you need | Japanese Lacquer-ware as the model.

Chapter 12Recipes for Leftovers – with photographs of work. Using the wet concrete you have at the end of a day’s work | Children’s balloons | Styrofoam food

packaging as molds. | Food and milk containers as feet for structures |

BOOKS IN THE WORKS

Cookbook II ???




Art Concrete – Landmarks in the GardenMaking Flexible Latex and Silicone Molds – Coloring, Sealers, FinishesConcrete Projects to Enhance the Garden – Chairs, stools, tables, and follies - structures from a solarium for the cat, to a manor for the dog.

St. Nemoise – Mother Goose - 24 inches tall, cast from latex mold of Maxwell original - See Chapter Five





Birdbath – eucalyptus, white, gray concrete, cinder blocks, aluminum– 30 x 42 inches

INTRODUCTION

NOTE #1: Cement is a powder. Concrete is a solid.

NOTE #2: !e we'er your mixture of cement and aggregate, the weaker your concrete. ! e drier your mixture

of cement and aggregate, the stronger your concrete.

NOTE #3: Your mixture should be molded in your hand to the consistency of a mud pie that holds it shape and




doesn't leak water. Strike a one-inch deep groove across its surface with your $ nger. If it holds that mark and

doesn't collapse back into your mud pie, you are ready to go to work.

PHOTO OF HAND HOLDING MUD PIE WITH THE LINE THROUGH IT.

From childhood a fascination, mud, is what I've returned to, not in body (yet), but in inspiration.

cement, sand and soil mixed together in equal parts with a minimal amount of water are be' er than adobe

without the straw. It is a basic building material as well as a plaster to veneer onto a vertical surface. With simple

organic sealers like linseed oil, the plaster surface becomes sturdier than linoleum % ooring. It can be repaired,

reconditioned, renewed, and made water resistant. ! e appearance of this mixture when dry is that of a hewn

weathered stone, an expression of the eternity of time, of long-gone cultures that made wa' le and daub

dwellings with dung. To stand next to these timeless man-made artifacts is to feel one's connection to the past, a

humbling yet fascinating experience. It is so much itself, so authentic and honest, it gives one permission to

simply be. Shocking!

Mud planter – 13 x 16 x 8 inches – planted with Irish moss – See recipe that follows.




Try this. Let's make an open box planter. Take a cardboard box 13”x 10”x 6 1/2”; seal it closed with

strapping tape. Put it into a plastic bag then wrap it as you would a Xmas present with four or $ ve layers of

newspaper; tape paper securely over the plastic bag. ! is is the inside of your planter. Place this box on your

work table, long side down, centered on a waterproof sheet of plastic. Make a skirt of newspaper to surround the

box and cover at least six inches of the plastic sheet out from our box; we don't want any of our mud to encase

this box, it is our planter's inside, remember. Build a cage over the box made of wire fencing material, or

hardware cloth; leave about one half inch space between the cage and the box.

Wrapping newspaper, four sheets thick, over plastic covered cardboard box.

Plastic coated wire cage over the box Mixing the dry mixture

Put on some latex gloves. You are going to make your mud from scratch. Mix one part cement, one part

sand and one part soil (po' ing soil, dirt from your garden or from an old planter). Stir in some water until you

have a mud – the mud you remember as a child – mud that will squish through your $ ngers, mud that returns




you to that familiar, giggling laughter of discovery, that tactile feel of mud that makes you realize, like a child,

you too can make something worthwhile.

Preparing the wet mixture – Applying perimeter lip of box with concrete

MUD/Earth Concrete PlanterFor this basic mixture use a plastic container for measuring, one pound or 453g (cottage cheese, salsas, any food plastic tub, volume to equal 2 cups). In a plastic dishpan add 4 tubs of dry fine sand, 4 tubs of dry potting soil, 4 tubs of cement, plastic cement, or Portland Cement type II. Mix evenly together and add 2 tubs of water. (Depending on the moisture level in your soil and sand, 2 tubs of water may be enough. If the sand and soil are really moist DO NOT add more than one cup additional water. Go for mud and not boggy wet mud; you will know the difference.) Mix your mud with your hands like bread dough (dishwashing kitchen gloves will protect your skin). NOTE: You will need to repeat this mixture at least three times to complete this project – there will be ample leftover.Chapter 12, Left-overs.

Finishing perimeter application _ Building up the sides

Pack the mud around the perimeter of the box, making sure it does not seep underneath the box.




Outline it, one inch tall by one and a half inch all the way around your box. Put the cage over the box and force

it into this wet mud rim. Keep in mind the cage is to be embedded in mud. Cover the box with this mixture,

force the mud through the cage onto the box with your $ ngers, pack it solid – free from air pockets. Coat the

entire box until the thickness is approximately one and one half inches of $ rmly packed mud. Use the palms of

your gloved hands to smooth it, leave no discernible marks on the surface other than it was made by hand.

Finishing concrete application – Applying fi nal texture by hands

Drainage Holes for Concrete PlantersI suggest you wait for four hours before you pierce a hole in the bottom of wet concrete. Curing begins immediately and should not be disrupted. However, sometimes I use a phillips screwdriver, held to twist back and forth as if I was starting a fire with a branch to drill out holes in the bottom of my planters. I make a more professional look with a household drill when the planter has cured for week, using masonry drill-bits starting with the smallest bit moving up in size.

Step back, don't touch it for three days. On the fourth or $ &h day turn the planter over to reveal the

inside, the newspaper covered box. Carefully take out the plastic covered box, pick off the newspaper from the

inside walls of the planter, drill $ ve one-half inch air holes through the dry concrete bo' om with masonry drill-

bits. Take rough sandpaper to abrade its outside surface. In one month, you have a strong planter that appears to

have arrived from the 15 th century. I won't have to prompt you to smile at your success.




Mud planter – 13 x 16 x 8 inches – planted with Scotch moss next to fossil inspired stepping stone

!e Concrete Gourmet's Cookbook

© James Maxwell 2010

h'p://www.artistjamesmaxwell.com




vases– acanthus leaf impressions – 12 x 24 inches...

Documents